Our daily reflections follow the M'Cheyne Bible reading plan, designed for those who want to read the whole Bible in one year. Each reflection focuses on one of the chapters from that day's readings. Darllenwch rhain yn Gymraeg.
Lord, prepare me to receive your word. Clear my mind and warm my heart. Assure me of your loving purposes for me, and speak into my life today.
This chapter is Paul's great exposition of the resurrection. He defends it to the hilt: Christ was really raised from the dead, he says, and without it Christians are all wasting their time: 'And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins' (verse 7). Furthermore, his resurrection is a guarantee of our own. He refuses to speculate about what that might look like ('You fool!' he tells people who insist on asking the question, in verse 36; you can't tell what a resurrection body will look like, any more than you can tell what a plant looks like from its seed) – but whatever form we take in an eternal future, we will still be 'us'.
Paul relates belief in the resurrection to the trials he is going through for the Corinthians. He has faced all sorts of perils and hardships, but he does it because he believes that even if he dies, God still has a future for him.
The greatest message of the resurrection is hope. It's not just that we sometimes suffer for being Christians. In our experience, all kinds of things die. Friendships, marriages, careers, dreams, ambitions, desires – and loved ones, and in the end, ourselves. Death is built in to life. But if God has shown himself stronger than death, he is stronger than anything.
God, help me to glory in your power shown in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And bless me with hope, that you can bring new life into parts of my life that are dead or dying.
This reflection was written by Mark Woods, Bible Society's Editor
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